Why can't the user experience be designed?

Recently, many designers have been discussing the topic of user experience. We should give our users a better experience and try to get them to like our website, apps and launch interfaces. The user experience is a very vague concept, so many people's understanding of her is still biased. In addition, many designers seem to have a firm belief in how to position the user experience, which is impractical. The user experience depends not only on what he designs, but also on everything. This article will explain why the user experience cannot be designed.

VIA smashingmagazine.com
Translator & Editor: Visual catcher

Different interpretations of the user experience
I recently visited a number of high-end design companies, their work looks very good, and was put in the company's case to show that the quality is beyond doubt. But these works seem to equate the user experience with the content of site maps and wireframes, like information architecture. This is fundamentally true, but this is far from what we want.

This level does not represent the entire industry, but research has found that the user experience has different standards and is often discussed as a hot topic. (For more on this, see Hans-christian jetter and Jens Gerken articles ("A simplified model of user experience for practical"). Not only about human-computer interaction, ease of use, or information architecture, although ease of use is the most important factor in user experience.
Many studies have shown differences in understanding the user experience, but many people still prefer the user experience to the conversation (HIC) between people and computers. (See the article Effie Lai-chong et al ("Understanding, scoping and defining user Experience:a survey").
However, the man-machine conversation involves some solutions, corporate goals and performance, and the user experience goes far beyond these categories. She needs to think about it from different angles, such as emotion, aesthetics, experience, ease of use, etc. Of course, ease of use is easy to evaluate, while others are not easy to do!

Hassenzahl Model of User experience

A number of user experience models have been proposed and some are based on Hassenzahl models. This model assumes that each user and product-related feature is assigned. As we have seen, these features are different for different users, and the user experience is the result of a user's response to a variety of features when making a product.

These tags/attributes are broadly divided into four categories: operability, recognition, stimulation, suggestive. These categories are divided into practicality and entertainment at a higher level.
Given the practicality and practical function of the product, the entertainment is related to the user's mental health, so knowing their differences can help us know how to design from a product perspective, not to design a user experience. , colleagues have also clarified why the user experience cannot be designed.

operability

Hassenzahl uses a hammer to metaphor pragmatism and hedonism. The feature of practicality is to let us know the function of the product. However, the hammer also has hedonic features, such as in evoking your memory. In this model, practical features are related to the enforceability of software, essentially operability and product core functionality, which is usually related to product availability. As a Web site, the end result should be simple and intuitive, and users know how to use it. Finally, Operability is one of the most important features of the user experience.

Although operability is important, a product still requires additional functionality. The first is recognition, think about it: there are a lot of items in front of you now, which one fits your habit and which one you care about, although some of them are attached. The second step is to want users to indicate their identity, so in order to complete this function, users need to express their ideas. The growth of social media requires the identification function. Before we made a personal website to tell the world about our preferences and pets, now we can use social media.

Facebook and blogs and some online services help people communicate and communicate who we are and what we do. These are the products that are born for identification. For example, the advantages of identity allow users to customize their own situation to express their ideas, WordPress, and some blog platform allows users to choose themes to display their personality, as users on Facebook update their status or other similar platforms such as Twitter.

Irritating

When users forget to put attachments, Gmail will have a warm hint.

The Pareto principle, also known as the "28 law," indicates that 80% of the available resources typically have only 20% availability. Therefore, it is necessary to sift through traditional usability projects, as most of them will rarely be adopted. This is not a user experience law. Few features can prompt the user and satisfy people's desire for personal development and skill upgrading, which can help us before certain functions.

From this point of view, the less commonly used features will not reduce the use of software, because it is difficult to use once. Keep them, once users find out, users will feel that there are so many powerful functional experience, and to the user to bring surprises and positive impact on the product. In fact, what do I think when Gmail reminds me? I forgot to send my attachment in the mail. If you search Gmail attchment on Twitter you can see that many people there feel the same way.

There are also a lot of irritating examples, but the best hints feature may be unexpected but necessary, just like Gmail's cue function. When YouTube decorated the logo for the Super Bowl or Valentine's Day to increase its exposure, I received a reminder from the monkey in MailChimp, "Shh, Helge, I heard some rumors" and then I can click on the link to Bananarama song on YouTube, Found something new.

Suggestive

The fourth feature product itself has, according to the Hassenzahl model, these help recall the function of the past is called suggestive. We often indulge in or talk about some of the past, even if it is yesterday. Even some dusty souvenirs can help us to evoke the past.

Design, we can give the website an old-fashioned looking nostalgic design that can evoke memories of our childhood, student age, 60 or 30 's. Even some modern websites, abstract design can also have suggestive function. A lot of photos on Facebook and Flickr are highly suggestive.

The user experience is not designed

Having said so much, why can't the user experience be designed? Because the user experience is not only the basic product itself, but also the situation when users and users use the product.

You can't design users

Users are diverse, some people can easily through the site to find what they want, for some people is not easy. The perception of the product depends on the product's independent user experience. The user will compare the different experiences of the product, and the user will also have different usage purposes, they can use all kinds of patterns.

Think about it: when you go to a restaurant to experience their food and service, you always compare it to the other restaurants you eat and find out what's different. They make up your experience. And your friends will make comparisons based on their previous experience, which will be different from yours. This is true of software, Web sites, app apps.

Factors you can't control

Find more demand points for users because each user has their own habits. So you can't design the user experience based on the use of the product. This situation is beyond the scope of our design. But he can decide why users use your products and how they experience them. On some occasions, such as WordPress, you definitely want to explore some valuable qualities and benefits. In a different environment, some features might make things more complicated. There are also occasions, such as the MailChimp Monkey's cue, "Some place is 5 o'clock now", which is cool, but sometimes you find it strange and annoying, because you use this application in different situations.

The user experience, however, is changing over time. When users are used for the first time, they may be confused and have a slight negative impact on the production. But then soon, when the user will find some valuable functions, will subconsciously learn how to operate, they will be full of devotion, at this time the user experience to bring the impact of people is positive.

for users

Many designers boast user experience divisions. In this regard is very talented, feel that the user experience can be designed. But we can not do this, but should be designed for users. We can design products and services, but determine that there are many different experiences at design time. So we don't guarantee that our design will match the product. We can neither shape user expectations nor create product usage.

As Oliver Reichenstein points out, there is a way to get users to manipulate products as we design them. Films and brands confirm this: they always anticipate certain experiences and always reach their goals.

In any case, watching horror movies in theaters is scarier than watching them at home because the environment is different. Similarly, the effect of ad delivery depends on the user's perception. Commercial advertising is designed for a certain experience, and his success is not in the advertising itself. Designing a user experience is different from designing a user experience and is important to help us understand and evoke our own limitations. Can help us think about what we want to experience.

It has been proven that, for example, various factors are set in the user experience, such as pleasure, emotion, usability, mobility, and collaborative experience. Conversely, when we design for the user experience, we must consider all the factors. See the article "Evaluating user-generated contentcreation across contexts and cultures" Marianna Obrist. On the contrary, when we experience design for the user, we need to solve the relevant factors that depend on how we want the product to be designed to feel for the user. If we want an application to be interesting, then we need to add some entertaining features; a joke, a challenging quiz, an interesting video, a competitive scene or other element. However, we need to keep in mind that as designers we can never really predict whether users are interested in this application. Users have different standards, and sometimes they don't even want to be.

for user experience

Understanding the User Experience

If we want to design for the user, we need to understand what is the user experience. Clustering example, which attribute allows the user to determine the advantages of the product, which is the way the Hassenzahl user experience works.

As Peter Morville's "user experience seven elements", so is the other model. The user experience here is divided into applicable, usable, consensual, easy to find, accessible, reliable, and valuable. These elements fit well with the Hassenzahl model: applicable, usable, easy to find, reliable and accessible are both practical (pragmatism and usability), while desirable and valuable are entertaining (about happiness).

Understanding Users

We need to understand our users. Some traditional methods of user research are also applicable, such as observation, interview and questionnaire. Similarly, creating personas is also appropriate for the user experience design.

Beyond expectations

Finally, give the user more. Not only your users can use effectively, but also let them sigh, "this is a masterpiece of genius!" ”。 Exceed user expectations. If you do, they will always use your website or apps, not because they have to, but because they can't help it.